Show-cause on purported revision of provincial boundaries

KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a show-cause order on a writ that questioned the constitutionality of government’s preparations to alter the provincial boundaries through an amendment to the Constitution.

A single bench of Chief Justice Sushila Karki ordered the defendants –the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Parliament and the Parliament – and the plaintiff, advocate Tika Dhoj Khadka, to come up with their arguments over whether or not to issue a stay order.

Khadka had filed a petition on Monday seeking a stay order against the government's efforts to revise the provincial boundaries through an amendment to the Constitution.

The petitioner argued that as paper the Article 274 of Nepal’s Constitution, the boundaries of provinces could be changed only with the consent of the concerned provinces, and since provinces had not been formed yet the efforts to revise boundaries would be an unconstitutional act.